Visionary Venues

What's the difference between closing the sale on $10,000 worth of electronics equipment and closing the sale on a 5-year, $50 million products and services contract? About $49,990,000.

Ever since the first major commercial transaction took place more than 20,000 years ago on a couple of granite barstools in the lobby of a cave somewhere in what is now France, sellers have known that the scope of the sales pitch must always be proportionate to the size of the purchase. You don't take a client to a $200 dinner to seal a $20 deal. Likewise, you don't convince the Sultan of Brunei to buy a five-star hotel in Hong Kong by shoving a plate of stale peanuts under his nose.

WRITING ON THE WALL: The video wall at Williams Communications in Tulsa.

As much as a decade ago, high technology companies such as IBM, EDS, Xerox, AT&T and others, realized that to sell their complex and costly products to their biggest and most important accounts they needed-in lieu of outright bribery-a special combination of environment, information, demonstration and hospitality. These companies understood two things: 1) a relatively small percentage of key customers often represent a significant majority of revenue; 2) Five-star buyers require a five-star sales effort. This was and is particularly true in the information technology sector, where products change incessantly and so do the companies that produce them. To facilitate sales in the rarified air of the really-big deals, hundreds of high-tech companies around the word have pumped steroids into their meeting rooms to create what have come to be called executive briefing centers or EBCs.

Hors d'oeuvres and Overheads

Historically, the role of an EBC and its operating staff is the orchestration of successful customer experiences. EBCs tend to operate in stealth mode as internal corporate services, available to sales and marketing teams for use on a prioritized basis but not widely publicized. Depending on company objectives, EBCs might play host to a few top executives from one key account, or a hundred individuals representing dozens of potential customers. EBC staff members schedule and organize events and help develop meeting agenda. Most assist in the creation of presentation media and are responsible for identifying subject matter experts within the organization.

"Briefing centers vary a great deal, but all of them were designed to assist the sales process," explains Roxanne McCreery, president and CEO of the Association of Briefing Program Managers (ABPM). As head of the Dallas-based professional organization for EBC managers, McCreery watched briefing center programs mature steadily in the 1990s from basic conference rooms with overhead projectors to elaborate multimedia communications complexes. Some consist of a single presentation room and reception lobby, while others have presentation theaters, technology demonstration facilities, intimate briefing rooms, and even world-class dining rooms. Many, if not most, EBCs feature the latest in AV and network communications gear. Investment in the facilities ranges widely, from less than a million to tens of millions of dollars.

In a recent ABPM survey of EBC visitors, 82 percent of the respondents said they purchased products after a visit, and more than half said they were influenced to purchase by the briefings. Of those customers who made purchases, 71 percent said the EBC experience increased their purchase level by as much as one third. Half of the purchasers said the experience reduced the sales cycle time.

And yet, as effective as EBCs have been in the past, their value to the organization appears to be on the rise. Companies doing business today face far greater challenges in maintaining and communicating a consistent, cohesive message. Trends such as volatile world financial markets, global network communications, organizational restructuring and a frenzy of mergers and acquisitions have forced businesses to adopt new strategies for image building, messaging, and customer engagement. As the market conditions and business environments change, so does the meaning of a successful customer experience. Because of their high-level role in the sales process, many EBCs have found themselves at the nexus of redefining those customer relationships.

"The role of the briefing centers is changing. They are more than just effective sales tools," states McCreery, whose organization grew 50 percent last year to more than 300 members. Increasingly, EBCs are being viewed as key components for supporting the corporate vision and mission. EBCs are beginning to address a much broader audience and are quickly becoming the nexus of corporate storytelling. "The briefing centers are delivering a much more sophisticated message now. It is all about telling the company story," she explains. "We are seeing a lot of brand new programs in the association. More often than not they are being launched because of senior managers or executive managers being aware of what role those programs can play. The executives more widely understand the concept." McCreery adds that many new members are from non-IT companies as well as from Europe and Asia.

"Companies are using these centers very differently than they once did," confirms Frank Bioschi, ABPM director of business development and former briefing programs manager at AT&T. Technology is playing a more important role in the experience. Some EBCs have evolved into experiential marketing facilities in which customers are treated to an almost theme park-like experience of the company's products and identity. "The goal [of the EBCs] is still to reach the customer with the sales message, but now they are reaching customers through the heart and the senses as well as the brain," he says.

Continue to Part 2